The Zen Studies Podcast

Recent Episodes

We sometimes get stuck in simplistic meditation instructions and therefore sell our meditation short. It's valuable to learn how to guide your own meditation - being mindful of your experience, arousing determination to do your best, and then being creative and diligent in finding ways to stay alert and focused. In this episode I explain this approach to meditation, and in the next episode I'll offer first-person stories about meditative experiences to illustrate the process.

This episode is part 2 of “Work as Spiritual Practice According to Dogen’s “Instructions to the Cook.” In this episode I take you through five ways to engage your work as spiritual practice, based on Dogen’s teaching.

This is the first episode of two on the Buddha's 45-year teaching career and the establishment of the Buddhist community. I’ll talk about the Buddha’s first sermons, the enlightenment of the first disciples, the first lay students of the Buddha and how lay practice figures into early Buddhism, and the initial formation of the ordained Sangha and how they practiced on a daily basis.

If you've spent any time in a Zen community, or reading Zen books, you will have encountered the term “practice” countless times. Buddhist teachers throughout the centuries have told us to “practice” diligently. Students of Zen are called “practitioners” and we talk to one another about our “practice.” What Is "Zen Practice," anyway? In this episode I present three important meanings of "practice," and how you can define practice in a traditional sense (Zen teachings, methods, conventions, etc.) or an experiential sense (how you face your life right here, right now).

In this episode I present an alternative to mindfulness practice. I do this because I believe the concept of mindfulness – at least the way it is typically understood – may limit our spiritual development. It can become a dualistic trap that causes us to reject much of what we are as human beings. I call this alternative, "The Radical Practice of Undivided Presence."